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Saturday, January 7, 2012

Sew Scraps Along

Jodi at Pleasant Home is hosting Sew Scraps Along this month, and I've decided to join in. Since making something scrappy is on my list of "NewFOs" for 2012, I thought the Sew Scraps Along would dovetail nicely with that plan.

There will be tips, tutorials, and inspiration aplenty for the next few weeks, as well as many chances to win scrappy goodies and prizes. Click the button for all the details!

Last night, I took some time to rummage through my own (disorganized) scrap drawers. I wanted to try making a block I'd seen in one of the books I'd been paging through for inspiration this week, Gwen Marston's Liberated String Quilts. This wasn't one of Gwen's patterns; it was a gallery photo of a 1930s string quilt. The only information was in the caption.

The Dresden ruler I picked up earlier in the week came into play in making my version of what I'm calling a scrappy string ring. Basically, it's a Dresden plate (sans points) cut from a strata of strings. I wasn't sure how this was going to work out, so I selected some pretty humble looking scrap strips to start with for my sample. I did try to keep the colors limited to red, blue, green, cream, and gray.

In order to get good variation, I determined that I would make four different strata of strings, ending in a rectangle that I trimmed to measure 6-1/2 inches high and about 11 or 12 inches long. I cut five wedges from each strata, alternating placement of the ruler for each wedge to add more variation, making a total of 20 wedges per ring.

Then it was just a matter of laying the wedges out in a pleasing way and sewing them together! I made a circle for the center and hand appliqued it down.

Once the ring was assembled, I stitched about 1/8 inch from the outer edge for stabilization, then pressed under 1/4 inch. Now it's ready to applique down onto a background (still experimenting with backgrounds at the moment).

Though it was a bit time consuming, I really like the way it turned out! This little sample will become a wall hanging.